I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm


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This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

On Saturday, June 9, 2018 at 5:12:11 PM UTC+1, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm


---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

Consider MotoG4. £100 brand new. Very pleased

In message , Malcolm Race
writes
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I changed from a folding phone some time ago, my wife still uses one.

Mine is an Aldi Medion remainder bin (under £50) one. It has been back
to Lenovo, (who make it) 3 times, so I also have a very cheap Chinese
spare. The Medion is 4g, the cheap one 3g, but I don't notice many
differences.

I carry the phone in my pocket and keep finding that it has gone off
into the woods running some stupid program that I didn't know was there.
I need to find some sort of non-intrusive case. A previous phone with an
attached leather fold over case was useless as it pressed on the side
buttons when I was active.

I don't want to wander round like a zombie holding my phone at all
times.

In many ways I miss the folding phone, but I regularly have to use my
phone to show my wife the latest pics the family have sent.
--
Bill

On 09/06/2018 17:12, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm

If you are simply after a phone that will take/make calls, send/receive
SMS, and has a "keyboard", then just buy the cheapest smartphone that
you can find. They will all do what you are after (and a lot more), for
a fraction of the prices that you were quoted by EE.

I would personally go for one of the earlier Moto G's - plenty of
refurbished ones on eBay.

JoeJoe wrote:
On 09/06/2018 17:12, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm

If you are simply after a phone that will take/make calls, send/receive
SMS, and has a "keyboard", then just buy the cheapest smartphone that
you can find. They will all do what you are after (and a lot more), for
a fraction of the prices that you were quoted by EE.

I would personally go for one of the earlier Moto G's - plenty of
refurbished ones on eBay.

As 'smartphones' go the Moto G is pretty good, the Moto E isn't that
bad either.

However (like the OP) I wish I could buy a phone which was good at
making phone calls, sending/receiving SMS and not much else but
there's no such thing now.

--
Chris Green
·

On 09/06/2018 20:02, Chris Green wrote:
JoeJoe wrote:
On 09/06/2018 17:12, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm

If you are simply after a phone that will take/make calls, send/receive
SMS, and has a "keyboard", then just buy the cheapest smartphone that
you can find. They will all do what you are after (and a lot more), for
a fraction of the prices that you were quoted by EE.

What quoted prices?

I would personally go for one of the earlier Moto G's - plenty of
refurbished ones on eBay.

As 'smartphones' go the Moto G is pretty good, the Moto E isn't that
bad either.

However (like the OP) I wish I could buy a phone which was good at
making phone calls, sending/receiving SMS and not much else but
there's no such thing now.

There's the Alcatel U5 3G for around £70 which works OK with some
limitations (camera no autofocus; limited built-in memory).

--
Max Demian

In article cca94ccc-ae91-4b0f-86d5-
,
says...


Consider MotoG4. £100 brand new. Very pleased

My phone is a Moto G3 which cost me about £80, new,a year ago.

It wasn't locked (from new) and I use it on 3.

I doubt I top up much more that £10 a year - I don't make many
calls and usually only use data when I'm connectec to a free
WiFi service.

--

Terry

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

On 09/06/2018 20:59, Max Demian wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:02, Chris Green wrote:
JoeJoe wrote:
On 09/06/2018 17:12, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that
the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm

If you are simply after a phone that will take/make calls, send/receive
SMS, and has a "keyboard", then just buy the cheapest smartphone that
you can find. They will all do what you are after (and a lot more), for
a fraction of the prices that you were quoted by EE.

What quoted prices?

I would personally go for one of the earlier Moto G's - plenty of
refurbished ones on eBay.

As 'smartphones' go the Moto G is pretty good, the Moto E isn't that
bad either.

However (like the OP) I wish I could buy a phone which was good at
making phone calls, sending/receiving SMS and not much else but
there's no such thing now.

There's the Alcatel U5 3G for around £70 which works OK with some
limitations (camera no autofocus; limited built-in memory).

Interested to see this discussion - I'm looking to upgrade from a Huawei
Y330 - which seems to have a fairly unresponsive/inaccurate
touch-screen, and is refusing to allow me to download apps - even though
it's got a large, empty sd-card plugged in...

I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to take
half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room to store
them), and I'd like to be able to run some apps like VNC Terminal, to
monitor the Raspberry Pi that looks after my glass kiln.

Prices on smartphones seem to vary widely - up to what I'd call 'silly
money'. Somebody on a web-based forum recommended the Archos range -
which includes a number of phones sub-100-euro - some of which seem to
have quite decent specs.

Any other suggestions gratefully received. I don't need a 'selfie'
camera (shudder!), or any other bells & whistles - just something that
has a decent touch-screen, one reasonable camera, and more than the 4gig
of internal memory that the Huawei has - or the willingness to actually
use the 32gb SD-card!

Thanks
Adrian

"Adrian Brentnall" wrote in message
...
On 09/06/2018 20:59, Max Demian wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:02, Chris Green wrote:
JoeJoe wrote:
On 09/06/2018 17:12, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be
a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that
the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm

If you are simply after a phone that will take/make calls, send/receive
SMS, and has a "keyboard", then just buy the cheapest smartphone that
you can find. They will all do what you are after (and a lot more), for
a fraction of the prices that you were quoted by EE.

What quoted prices?

I would personally go for one of the earlier Moto G's - plenty of
refurbished ones on eBay.

As 'smartphones' go the Moto G is pretty good, the Moto E isn't that
bad either.

However (like the OP) I wish I could buy a phone which was good at
making phone calls, sending/receiving SMS and not much else but
there's no such thing now.

There's the Alcatel U5 3G for around £70 which works OK with some
limitations (camera no autofocus; limited built-in memory).

Interested to see this discussion - I'm looking to upgrade from a Huawei
Y330 - which seems to have a fairly unresponsive/inaccurate touch-screen,
and is refusing to allow me to download apps - even though it's got a
large, empty sd-card plugged in...

Because the apps dont reside on that

I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to take
half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room to store
them),

Because you havent moved the ones already there to the SD card.

and I'd like to be able to run some apps like VNC Terminal, to monitor the
Raspberry Pi that looks after my glass kiln.

Prices on smartphones seem to vary widely

Yes, but that because the amount of memory
and quality of the cameras does too.

- up to what I'd call 'silly money'.

For someone who wants to use their phone like you do, sure.

Somebody on a web-based forum recommended the Archos range - which
includes a number of phones sub-100-euro - some of which seem to have
quite decent specs.

Not with the amount of memory they dont at those prices.

Any other suggestions gratefully received. I don't need a 'selfie' camera
(shudder!),

They all do, tho it can be pretty poor with the worst of them.

or any other bells & whistles - just something that has a decent
touch-screen, one reasonable camera, and more than the 4gig of internal
memory that the Huawei has - or the willingness to actually use the 32gb
SD-card!

No androids do as far as letting you have the apps there, for a reason.

Chris Green wrote:


As 'smartphones' go the Moto G is pretty good, the Moto E isn't that
bad either.

However (like the OP) I wish I could buy a phone which was good at
making phone calls, sending/receiving SMS and not much else but
there's no such thing now.


Have you considered something from the Doro range?
They are designed for older people who just want a simple phone with
reasonable sized buttons they dont have to struggle to read, and clamshell
so buttons dont get pressed inadvertently but it isnt compulsory to be
old to buy one.
Bought my Mother one the other day, she had one of the earlier versions for
years but left it unused for so long that that it got disconnected and
with the change from Orange to EE it was a step too far in recovering it .
About 3 weeks Lidl had the Doro 2404 infor £24.99 so I grabbed one, the
bumph with it steered you to Vodafone but it turned out to be a dual sim
phone and unlocked.


GH

On 09/06/2018 17:59, stuart noble wrote:
On Saturday, June 9, 2018 at 5:12:11 PM UTC+1, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm


---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

Consider MotoG4. £100 brand new. Very pleased


I bought a Xiaomi Redmi 4x for about £90, imported from China. About the
same spec, and a fair bit snappier, than my 'main' iPhone 6. Toy camera
and labyrinthine interface compared to the iPhone, but double the
battery life, a bigger bright screen and waterproof. For the price, no
complaints.

I use a SIM that comes as part of a Talktalk internet bundle.

--
Cheers, Rob

On Saturday, 9 June 2018 17:12:11 UTC+1, Malcolm Race wrote:

I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm

any old smart phone can do that no problem. I've seen ok smartphones in shops for £15 up. Better to pick a good old one than a new junker at that price.


NT

On 09/06/2018 21:48, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:59, Max Demian wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:02, Chris Green wrote:
JoeJoe wrote:
On 09/06/2018 17:12, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily (currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will
be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware
that the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm

If you are simply after a phone that will take/make calls, send/receive
SMS, and has a "keyboard", then just buy the cheapest smartphone that
you can find. They will all do what you are after (and a lot more), for
a fraction of the prices that you were quoted by EE.

What quoted prices?

I would personally go for one of the earlier Moto G's - plenty of
refurbished ones on eBay.

As 'smartphones' go the Moto G is pretty good, the Moto E isn't that
bad either.

However (like the OP) I wish I could buy a phone which was good at
making phone calls, sending/receiving SMS and not much else but
there's no such thing now.

There's the Alcatel U5 3G for around £70 which works OK with some
limitations (camera no autofocus; limited built-in memory).

Interested to see this discussion - I'm looking to upgrade from a Huawei
Y330 - which seems to have a fairly unresponsive/inaccurate
touch-screen, and is refusing to allow me to download apps - even though
it's got a large, empty sd-card plugged in...

On some (all?) phones the apps download to internal memory and then you
have to manually tell the phone to move app in turn to the memory card.
Some of the apps (perhaps the manufactured installed apps) may be locked
to the phone's internal memory.


I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to take
half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room to store
them),

Again, the destination for phone's photos has to be configured for sd
card. The phone will default to saving them on the internal memory.




--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 09/06/2018 23:51, Marland wrote:
Chris Green wrote:


As 'smartphones' go the Moto G is pretty good, the Moto E isn't that
bad either.

However (like the OP) I wish I could buy a phone which was good at
making phone calls, sending/receiving SMS and not much else but
there's no such thing now.


Have you considered something from the Doro range?
They are designed for older people who just want a simple phone with
reasonable sized buttons they dont have to struggle to read, and clamshell
so buttons dont get pressed inadvertently but it isnt compulsory to be
old to buy one.

My mother has an older Sony Andriod phone that has a user configured
simple or expert interface where the former has the basic functionality
of phone, text, camera and a a few apps by default.

My mother gets on well with it although when something goes wrong the
sometimes quirky Sony way of doing things can be a PITA. (It may be that
coming from Andriod interfaces from other manufacturers trying to find a
setting that must be there is just frustrating on the Sony)




--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

"alan_m" wrote in message
...
On 09/06/2018 21:48, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:59, Max Demian wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:02, Chris Green wrote:
JoeJoe wrote:
On 09/06/2018 17:12, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily
(currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will be
a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware that
the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm

If you are simply after a phone that will take/make calls,
send/receive
SMS, and has a "keyboard", then just buy the cheapest smartphone that
you can find. They will all do what you are after (and a lot more),
for
a fraction of the prices that you were quoted by EE.

What quoted prices?

I would personally go for one of the earlier Moto G's - plenty of
refurbished ones on eBay.

As 'smartphones' go the Moto G is pretty good, the Moto E isn't that
bad either.

However (like the OP) I wish I could buy a phone which was good at
making phone calls, sending/receiving SMS and not much else but
there's no such thing now.

There's the Alcatel U5 3G for around £70 which works OK with some
limitations (camera no autofocus; limited built-in memory).

Interested to see this discussion - I'm looking to upgrade from a Huawei
Y330 - which seems to have a fairly unresponsive/inaccurate touch-screen,
and is refusing to allow me to download apps - even though it's got a
large, empty sd-card plugged in...

On some (all?) phones the apps download to internal memory and then you
have to manually tell the phone to move app in turn to the memory card.
Some of the apps (perhaps the manufactured installed apps) may be locked
to the phone's internal memory.

Most android versions dont let you run the apps
from the memory card, particularly the later ones.

I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to take
half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room to store
them),

Again, the destination for phone's photos has to be configured for sd
card. The phone will default to saving them on the internal memory.

On 10/06/2018 07:21, Rod Speed wrote:

Most android versions dont let you run the apps
from the memory card, particularly the later ones.

On every version of Andriod I've used many apps can be moved to the sd
card freeing up internal storage.


--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 10/06/2018 07:50, alan_m wrote:
On 10/06/2018 07:21, Rod Speed wrote:

Most android versions dont let you run the apps
from the memory card, particularly the later ones.

On every version of Andriod I've used many apps can be moved to the sd
card freeing up internal storage.


AIUI that's true if the phone's rooted but not a safe assumption if the
phone is left as shipped because some phones won't allow _any_ apps at
all to be moved or installed to an external card (even when formatted as
internal storage).

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On 10/06/2018 07:50, alan_m wrote:
On 10/06/2018 07:21, Rod Speed wrote:

Most android versions dont let you run the apps
from the memory card, particularly the later ones.

On every version of Andriod I've used many apps can be moved to the sd
card freeing up internal storage.


It seems to be very dependant on the app and what the manufacturers have
done to the stock android.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/move-an...ews-21279.html



--
Chris B (News)

alan_m wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Most android versions dont let you run the apps
from the memory card, particularly the later ones.

On every version of Andriod I've used many apps can be moved to the sd
card freeing up internal storage.

You clearly dont use the the latest android OSs.

Chris B wrote
alan_m wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Most android versions dont let you run the apps
from the memory card, particularly the later ones.

On every version of Andriod I've used many apps can be moved to the sd
card freeing up internal storage.

It seems to be very dependant on the app and what the manufacturers have
done to the stock android.

And the version of the android OS too.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/move-an...ews-21279.html

On 10/06/2018 07:06, alan_m wrote:
On 09/06/2018 21:48, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:59, Max Demian wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:02, Chris Green wrote:
JoeJoe wrote:
On 09/06/2018 17:12, Malcolm Race wrote:
I currently have a simple phone on EE (Samsung folding)

There are times when I would like to be able to text easily
(currently
choose one letter from 3) and look on internet

I have talked to EE and suggestions are
Huawei P8lite

LGK8

Samsung J8 (2018)

I am currently using PAYG and intend to continue- the handset will
be a
birthday present so contract is a no-brainer as I only top up by less
than £50 yearly

Does anyone have any experiance of these 3 handsets (I am aware
that the
earlier versions of the Smsung are short of memory

VMT

Malcolm

If you are simply after a phone that will take/make calls,
send/receive
SMS, and has a "keyboard", then just buy the cheapest smartphone that
you can find. They will all do what you are after (and a lot more),
for
a fraction of the prices that you were quoted by EE.

What quoted prices?

I would personally go for one of the earlier Moto G's - plenty of
refurbished ones on eBay.

As 'smartphones' go the Moto G is pretty good, the Moto E isn't that
bad either.

However (like the OP) I wish I could buy a phone which was good at
making phone calls, sending/receiving SMS and not much else but
there's no such thing now.

There's the Alcatel U5 3G for around £70 which works OK with some
limitations (camera no autofocus; limited built-in memory).

Interested to see this discussion - I'm looking to upgrade from a
Huawei Y330 - which seems to have a fairly unresponsive/inaccurate
touch-screen, and is refusing to allow me to download apps - even
though it's got a large, empty sd-card plugged in...

On some (all?) phones the apps download to internal memory and then you
have to manually tell the phone to move app in turn to the memory card.
Some of the apps (perhaps the manufactured installed apps) may be locked
to the phone's internal memory.

Thanks. That seems to be the problem with this particular phone (based
on my experience and some Googling). Many apps have a button for 'move
to sd-card', but it's greyed out.

Aha! - rummaging around in the 'storage' section discovered a bunch of
enormous log-files - which (after checking onlineg) I deleted.
There's now a lot more memory available.....
...and I've been able to download a couple of VNC Viewer programs - which
is a start.

Can't get them to talk to the RPi yet ("Server did not offer supported
security type")- but that'll be a setting somewhere - so a small step
forwards!


I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to
take half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room to
store them),

Again, the destination for phone's photos has to be configured for sd
card. The phone will default to saving them on the internal memory.


I'll have to look into that... at least there's now some 'elbow-room' on
this phone. The touch-keyboard is still dreadful though - makes life
interesting if you're trying to enter passwords and you may or may not
be selecting the adjacent key - even using one of those
'rubbery-pointer' things..

Think I still need a better phone!

Thanks
Adrian

In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to take
half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room to store
them), and I'd like to be able to run some apps like VNC Terminal, to
monitor the Raspberry Pi that looks after my glass kiln.

That was the problem I had. Wanting a half decent camera - since that gets
probably more use than the phone functions. But the best cameras rather
obviously come in the most expensive phones. I bought a Galaxy 5 some
years ago for PAYG, and am still pleased with the camera for the sort of
use I give it.

So might be worth looking for a good used phone with a decent camera,
since you're not going to need all the bells and whistles of the latest
model?

--
*I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message , Adrian Brentnall
writes
I'll have to look into that... at least there's now some 'elbow-room'
on this phone. The touch-keyboard is still dreadful though - makes life
interesting if you're trying to enter passwords and you may or may not
be selecting the adjacent key - even using one of those
'rubbery-pointer' things..

Think I still need a better phone!

The first fault on my Medion/Lenovo phone was that it suddenly started
doing that. There is usually a feature in the depths of
Settings-Developer options called something like pointer overlay that
shows a crosshatch on the screen. Unfortunately, it wasn't there on the
slightly dumbed down Medion.

I have nothing but praise for the Medion warranty, though. All repairs
were done foc, and it looked as though the carriage back and forth to
Lenovo (in Austria, I think) cost them more than the original cost of
the phone.

--
Bill

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to take
half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room to store
them), and I'd like to be able to run some apps like VNC Terminal, to
monitor the Raspberry Pi that looks after my glass kiln.

That was the problem I had. Wanting a half decent camera - since that gets
probably more use than the phone functions. But the best cameras rather
obviously come in the most expensive phones. I bought a Galaxy 5 some
years ago for PAYG, and am still pleased with the camera for the sort of
use I give it.

So might be worth looking for a good used phone with a decent camera,
since you're not going to need all the bells and whistles of the latest
model?

Not if it doesn’t have a user replaceable battery and most don’t anymore.

"Bill" wrote in message
...
In message , Adrian Brentnall
writes
I'll have to look into that... at least there's now some 'elbow-room' on
this phone. The touch-keyboard is still dreadful though - makes life
interesting if you're trying to enter passwords and you may or may not be
selecting the adjacent key - even using one of those 'rubbery-pointer'
things..

Think I still need a better phone!

The first fault on my Medion/Lenovo phone was that it suddenly started
doing that. There is usually a feature in the depths of
Settings-Developer options called something like pointer overlay that
shows a crosshatch on the screen. Unfortunately, it wasn't there on the
slightly dumbed down Medion.

I have nothing but praise for the Medion warranty, though. All repairs
were done foc, and it looked as though the carriage back and forth to
Lenovo (in Austria, I think) cost them more than the original cost of the
phone.

Problem is getting new batterys when you need them.

On 10/06/2018 08:35, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 10/06/2018 07:06, alan_m wrote:
On 09/06/2018 21:48, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:59, Max Demian wrote:

There's the Alcatel U5 3G for around £70 which works OK with some
limitations (camera no autofocus; limited built-in memory).

Interested to see this discussion - I'm looking to upgrade from a
Huawei Y330 - which seems to have a fairly unresponsive/inaccurate
touch-screen, and is refusing to allow me to download apps - even
though it's got a large, empty sd-card plugged in...

On some (all?) phones the apps download to internal memory and then
you have to manually tell the phone to move app in turn to the memory
card. Some of the apps (perhaps the manufactured installed apps) may
be locked to the phone's internal memory.

Thanks. That seems to be the problem with this particular phone (based
on my experience and some Googling). Many apps have a button for 'move
to sd-card', but it's greyed out.

Aha! - rummaging around in the 'storage' section discovered a bunch of
enormous log-files - which (after checking onlineg) I deleted.
There's now a lot more memory available.....
...and I've been able to download a couple of VNC Viewer programs -
which is a start.

Can't get them to talk to the RPi yet ("Server did not offer supported
security type")- but that'll be a setting somewhere - so a small step
forwards!


I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to
take half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room
to store them),

Again, the destination for phone's photos has to be configured for sd
card. The phone will default to saving them on the internal memory.


I'll have to look into that... at least there's now some 'elbow-room' on
this phone. The touch-keyboard is still dreadful though - makes life
interesting if you're trying to enter passwords and you may or may not
be selecting the adjacent key - even using one of those
'rubbery-pointer' things..

Settings-Storage-Default write disk: Set to the SD card.

I have Android 7.0 on my Alcatel.

Some applications have an individual write destination (on their
Settings menus) of you don't want everything to go on the SD card.

--
Max Demian

On 10/06/2018 11:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to take
half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room to store
them), and I'd like to be able to run some apps like VNC Terminal, to
monitor the Raspberry Pi that looks after my glass kiln.

That was the problem I had. Wanting a half decent camera - since that gets
probably more use than the phone functions. But the best cameras rather
obviously come in the most expensive phones. I bought a Galaxy 5 some
years ago for PAYG, and am still pleased with the camera for the sort of
use I give it.

So might be worth looking for a good used phone with a decent camera,
since you're not going to need all the bells and whistles of the latest
model?


Yes - that's a thought....
The camera on the Huawei seems to be 3.15Megapixels... the Archos core
50 I was looking at has two cameras - but the front one is 13mp (!)

Prompted by comments on this newsgroup, I had a bit of a furtle in the
Huawei, and found a heap of logfiles that were occupying _lots_ of space.
Sent them to the great bit-bucket in the sky, and the phone condescended
to allow me to download a VNC viewer - and, after a tweak to the VNC
server on the RPi, managed to access the RPi 'kiln temperature' screen
on the phone - which is a step forwards...

Touch-screen on the Huawei still leaves a lot to be desired - so I'll
keep looking for an upgrade. I guess 'most people' change/upgrade their
phones quite frequently, so there may be lightly-used, second-user
phones out there at reasonable prices - never really thought about it..
I suppose it's one of those things that either 'works' or 'doesn't'...
and if the seller (thinking trader rather than private individual) is
willing to offer some kind of warranty, then how bad could it be?

Thanks
Adrian

On 10/06/2018 11:37, Max Demian wrote:
On 10/06/2018 08:35, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 10/06/2018 07:06, alan_m wrote:
On 09/06/2018 21:48, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 09/06/2018 20:59, Max Demian wrote:

There's the Alcatel U5 3G for around £70 which works OK with some
limitations (camera no autofocus; limited built-in memory).

Interested to see this discussion - I'm looking to upgrade from a
Huawei Y330 - which seems to have a fairly unresponsive/inaccurate
touch-screen, and is refusing to allow me to download apps - even
though it's got a large, empty sd-card plugged in...

On some (all?) phones the apps download to internal memory and then
you have to manually tell the phone to move app in turn to the memory
card. Some of the apps (perhaps the manufactured installed apps) may
be locked to the phone's internal memory.

Thanks. That seems to be the problem with this particular phone (based
on my experience and some Googling). Many apps have a button for 'move
to sd-card', but it's greyed out.

Aha! - rummaging around in the 'storage' section discovered a bunch of
enormous log-files - which (after checking onlineg) I deleted.
There's now a lot more memory available.....
...and I've been able to download a couple of VNC Viewer programs -
which is a start.

Can't get them to talk to the RPi yet ("Server did not offer supported
security type")- but that'll be a setting somewhere - so a small step
forwards!


I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to
take half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room
to store them),

Again, the destination for phone's photos has to be configured for sd
card. The phone will default to saving them on the internal memory.


I'll have to look into that... at least there's now some 'elbow-room'
on this phone. The touch-keyboard is still dreadful though - makes
life interesting if you're trying to enter passwords and you may or
may not be selecting the adjacent key - even using one of those
'rubbery-pointer' things..

Settings-Storage-Default write disk: Set to the SD card.

I have Android 7.0 on my Alcatel.

Some applications have an individual write destination (on their
Settings menus) of you don't want everything to go on the SD card.


Thanks - I found a little (large!) pile of old log files and nuked them.
This freed up an amount of space, and I was able to download & install
the VNC Viewer - which was happy enough to install the the SD-card.

Things like 'Google' don't want to have anything to do with the SD
card... but at least I've got the VNC bit working.
Still on the lookout for a better phone, though!
Thanks
Adrian

In message , Rod Speed
writes


"Bill" wrote in message
...

I have nothing but praise for the Medion warranty, though. All
repairs were done foc, and it looked as though the carriage back and
forth to Lenovo (in Austria, I think) cost them more than the original
cost of the phone.

Problem is getting new batterys when you need them.

No. Medion sell spare batteries, as well as many spare parts - camera
speaker etc. Battery price seems OK, only a replacement screen at close
to three times the cost of the phone seems a bit over the top.
--
Bill

In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Yes - that's a thought....
The camera on the Huawei seems to be 3.15Megapixels... the Archos core
50 I was looking at has two cameras - but the front one is 13mp (!)

Don't forget the quality of the actual lens. Might be an extremely
expensive part of the phone, since the physics of this hasn't much changed
over the years, unlike chips.

I had a picture of a car taken on my Samsung used in a club calender.
Ignoring any artistic merit ;-), it looked as good in terms of definition
and colour etc as any of the others, some of which I know to have been
taken on very expensive cameras.

--
*You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 10/06/2018 12:32, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Yes - that's a thought....
The camera on the Huawei seems to be 3.15Megapixels... the Archos core
50 I was looking at has two cameras - but the front one is 13mp (!)

Don't forget the quality of the actual lens. Might be an extremely
expensive part of the phone, since the physics of this hasn't much changed
over the years, unlike chips.

I had a picture of a car taken on my Samsung used in a club calender.
Ignoring any artistic merit ;-), it looked as good in terms of definition
and colour etc as any of the others, some of which I know to have been
taken on very expensive cameras.


Phone cameras these days take OK pictures as long as you aren't taking
pictures in extreme lighting, etc.
They are OK for snaps in daylight and some artificial light.
They are usually useless for night time unless your expectations are low
which they probably are if you haven't used a DSLR.

On 10/06/2018 12:32, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Yes - that's a thought....
The camera on the Huawei seems to be 3.15Megapixels... the Archos core
50 I was looking at has two cameras - but the front one is 13mp (!)

Don't forget the quality of the actual lens. Might be an extremely
expensive part of the phone, since the physics of this hasn't much changed
over the years, unlike chips.

I had a picture of a car taken on my Samsung used in a club calender.
Ignoring any artistic merit ;-), it looked as good in terms of definition
and colour etc as any of the others, some of which I know to have been
taken on very expensive cameras.

Yes. A friend of mine is an experienced photographer/graphics designer,
and is involved with a local, high-end Art Gallery.
He used to lug all of his expensive digital photographic kit in to the
gallery every 2 weeks to photograph the new exhibits, until one day he
thought "What about using my phone instead?"
(I think it's an I-phone - since all of his other tech is Apple)

The resultant photos were deemed to be just as good as his 'proper'
photos (he produces an online catalogue for each exhibition) - so now
his proper camera kit stays at home...

My little 'go to' camera - a 15-year-old Fuji F10 is "only" 6
megapixels, and that's grand for all I need to do - so having a phone
with similar abilities, plus the advantage of usually having it in my
pocket, would be a plus.
The phone review sites I've seen don't seem to review the phone cameras
- other than to give a megapixel rating - so it's hard to know which
ones are better than others...?

Adrian Brentnall wrote:
The phone review sites I've seen don't seem to review the phone cameras
- other than to give a megapixel rating - so it's hard to know which
ones are better than others...?

I think if you're fishing around the cheap end of the pool the cameras
aren't much to write home about, so they don't review them very much.

I'd suggest looking at flagship phones from a few years ago - either used or
refurb. For instance, an iPhone or the Galaxy S or Galaxy Note ranges.
Here is a good source of refurb phones:
https://store.musicmagpie.co.uk/mobile-phones

- older phones like a Galaxy S5, Note 4 or iPhone 6 or SE are in the 100-200
pound bracket, and possibly cheaper on ebay.

Apple are good at keeping old-ish phones up to date, or you can install
LineageOS on some Android phones.

Theo

On 10/06/2018 13:29, Theo wrote:
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
The phone review sites I've seen don't seem to review the phone cameras
- other than to give a megapixel rating - so it's hard to know which
ones are better than others...?

I think if you're fishing around the cheap end of the pool the cameras
aren't much to write home about, so they don't review them very much.

I'd suggest looking at flagship phones from a few years ago - either used or
refurb. For instance, an iPhone or the Galaxy S or Galaxy Note ranges.
Here is a good source of refurb phones:
https://store.musicmagpie.co.uk/mobile-phones

- older phones like a Galaxy S5, Note 4 or iPhone 6 or SE are in the 100-200
pound bracket, and possibly cheaper on ebay.

Apple are good at keeping old-ish phones up to date, or you can install
LineageOS on some Android phones.

Theo


Thanks. I'm in Ireland - but might pop in to a local phone shop early in
the week, as I know they have 2nd-user phones...

In article ,
dennis@home wrote:
On 10/06/2018 12:32, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Yes - that's a thought....
The camera on the Huawei seems to be 3.15Megapixels... the Archos core
50 I was looking at has two cameras - but the front one is 13mp (!)

Don't forget the quality of the actual lens. Might be an extremely
expensive part of the phone, since the physics of this hasn't much changed
over the years, unlike chips.

I had a picture of a car taken on my Samsung used in a club calender.
Ignoring any artistic merit ;-), it looked as good in terms of definition
and colour etc as any of the others, some of which I know to have been
taken on very expensive cameras.


Phone cameras these days take OK pictures as long as you aren't taking
pictures in extreme lighting, etc.
They are OK for snaps in daylight and some artificial light.
They are usually useless for night time unless your expectations are low
which they probably are if you haven't used a DSLR.

Oh - indeed. Didn't mean to suggest they can match a 'proper' camera under
all conditions. But then neither can any shapshot camera.
Just making the point that they can be vastly better than ones of only a
few years ago. Or on a cheap phone.

Think is a decent proper camera is a bulky object to carry with you at all
times. Most always carry a phone, though.

--
*Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 09/06/2018 21:48, Terry Casey wrote:
In article cca94ccc-ae91-4b0f-86d5-
,
says...


Consider MotoG4. £100 brand new. Very pleased

My phone is a Moto G3 which cost me about £80, new,a year ago.

It wasn't locked (from new) and I use it on 3.

I doubt I top up much more that £10 a year - I don't make many
calls and usually only use data when I'm connectec to a free
WiFi service.

+1 for Motorola (or whoever they are now), I have had a G4 and G5 and I
bought someone a Moto E. Excellent value.

I do actually have SIM only contracts, currently one of the cheapest
GiffGaff ones, but last time I looked someone else (Tesco?) gave
slightly more data for the same price.

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On 09/06/2018 21:48, Adrian Brentnall wrote:


Any other suggestions gratefully received. I don't need a 'selfie'
camera (shudder!), or any other bells & whistles - just something that
has a decent touch-screen, one reasonable camera, and more than the 4gig
of internal memory that the Huawei has - or the willingness to actually
use the 32gb SD-card!

Thanks
Adrian

I think the "card" thing relates to the version of Android, as tweaked
by the phone maker. Some apps can be moved to the card, some can't. You
*should* be able to store photos and music on the card. You may struggle
to access the card via USB.

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On 10/06/2018 13:29, Theo wrote:
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
The phone review sites I've seen don't seem to review the phone cameras
- other than to give a megapixel rating - so it's hard to know which
ones are better than others...?

I think if you're fishing around the cheap end of the pool the cameras
aren't much to write home about, so they don't review them very much.

I'd suggest looking at flagship phones from a few years ago - either used or
refurb. For instance, an iPhone or the Galaxy S or Galaxy Note ranges.
Here is a good source of refurb phones:
https://store.musicmagpie.co.uk/mobile-phones



I don't think I would pay their prices when you can get a new moto g6
for £220 on amazon.

"Adrian Brentnall" wrote in message
...
On 10/06/2018 11:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
I don;t use the mobile that often, but it'd be handy to be able to take
half-decent photos (the Huawei complains that it's got no room to store
them), and I'd like to be able to run some apps like VNC Terminal, to
monitor the Raspberry Pi that looks after my glass kiln.

That was the problem I had. Wanting a half decent camera - since that
gets
probably more use than the phone functions. But the best cameras rather
obviously come in the most expensive phones. I bought a Galaxy 5 some
years ago for PAYG, and am still pleased with the camera for the sort of
use I give it.

So might be worth looking for a good used phone with a decent camera,
since you're not going to need all the bells and whistles of the latest
model?


Yes - that's a thought....
The camera on the Huawei seems to be 3.15Megapixels... the Archos core 50
I was looking at has two cameras - but the front one is 13mp (!)

Prompted by comments on this newsgroup, I had a bit of a furtle in the
Huawei, and found a heap of logfiles that were occupying _lots_ of space.
Sent them to the great bit-bucket in the sky, and the phone condescended
to allow me to download a VNC viewer - and, after a tweak to the VNC
server on the RPi, managed to access the RPi 'kiln temperature' screen on
the phone - which is a step forwards...

Touch-screen on the Huawei still leaves a lot to be desired - so I'll keep
looking for an upgrade. I guess 'most people' change/upgrade their phones
quite frequently, so there may be lightly-used, second-user phones out
there at reasonable prices - never really thought about it..
I suppose it's one of those things that either 'works' or 'doesn't'... and
if the seller (thinking trader rather than private individual) is willing
to offer some kind of warranty, then how bad could it be?

Quite bad if it doesnt have a user replaceable battery and the trader
chooses to tell you that that's life when you discover it doesnt last
very long between charges. It isnt even that easy to check that when
you have it in your hand before handing over the money.

"dennis@home" wrote in message
...
On 10/06/2018 12:32, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Yes - that's a thought....
The camera on the Huawei seems to be 3.15Megapixels... the Archos core
50 I was looking at has two cameras - but the front one is 13mp (!)

Don't forget the quality of the actual lens. Might be an extremely
expensive part of the phone, since the physics of this hasn't much
changed
over the years, unlike chips.

I had a picture of a car taken on my Samsung used in a club calender.
Ignoring any artistic merit ;-), it looked as good in terms of definition
and colour etc as any of the others, some of which I know to have been
taken on very expensive cameras.

Phone cameras these days take OK pictures as long as you aren't taking
pictures in extreme lighting, etc.

The best of them do fine in poor lighting too. Plenty of
times I have had a hell of a job seeing the fine detail of
something that isnt well lit. A photo fixes that instantly.

They are OK for snaps in daylight and some artificial light.
They are usually useless for night time

BULL****.

unless your expectations are low which they probably are if you haven't
used a DSLR.

Even sillier than you usually manage and thats saying something.